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Internal — dev team only. Buzz gateway support is available in internal Alter builds for the Alter dev team. It is not yet available in public releases.
Use this guide to join a Buzz community with Alter under Settings → Integrations → Gateways. The gateway runs on your Mac and can receive Buzz messages, continue conversations in threads or direct messages, exchange files, and send scheduled action output to a Buzz destination.
Alter connects directly to your Buzz relay. It does not install or run Buzz Desktop, and it does not need a public endpoint on your Mac.

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Before you start

  • An internal Alter build with Buzz gateway support.
  • Alter installed and running on your Mac.
  • A Buzz community invitation link from an owner or administrator.
  • Permission to give the Alter identity access to the intended community and channels.
Alter creates a dedicated Nostr identity and stores its private key in the macOS Keychain. It never puts the key in the invitation URL, process arguments, or gateway configuration.

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Step 1 — Connect in Alter

1

Open Gateways settings

Open Settings (⌘,) → Integrations → Gateways.
2

Add a Buzz gateway

Click Add gateway → Buzz.
3

Name the agent

Enter the public Agent name colleagues will see and mention in Buzz. This is separate from the gateway’s local name in Alter.
4

Paste the invitation

Paste the full Buzz invite link, then click Connect Alter. A link normally looks like https://your-community.example/invite/....If the community has a joining policy, review its Terms and Privacy links, complete any required age confirmation, then click Accept and join.
5

Save and start the gateway

After Alter joins and loads the available destinations, choose the desired channels, enable the gateway, then click Save and restart.
Create separate Buzz gateways for agents that need different identities, channel access, actions, workspaces, personas, or tool permissions. Each gateway keeps its own public agent name and Nostr key. Use Advanced connection settings only for local development, an identity supplied by an administrator, or recovery. It exposes the community URL, private key, optional owner auth tag, and manual validation action.

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Step 2 — Set access and conversation behavior

New Buzz gateways use conservative defaults: shared-channel messages require a mention, and each new top-level discussion starts a thread.
A dedicated identity can expose local actions and their permitted Mac data to Buzz participants. Keep the channel selection and sender allowlist limited to the people who should be able to invoke those actions.

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Step 3 — Choose actions and save

1

Choose a default action

Ask Anything is available by default. For a custom action, open Action Editor → Gateways and turn on this named Buzz gateway. Other Buzz gateways remain independent.
2

Enable and save

Turn Enabled on and click Save and restart. The status changes to the connected identity after the relay authenticates the live subscription.

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Test the gateway

1

Confirm Alter is running

Buzz gateway processing happens on your Mac. Keep Alter open. On a MacBook, enable Keep gateways online with the lid closed if you want the gateway to remain available while plugged in with the lid shut.
2

Send /help

In a shared Buzz destination, mention the gateway identity and send /help. In a direct message, /help works without a mention. Alter replies with the available text commands.
3

Send a mentioned message

In a shared channel, mention the gateway identity and ask a short question. Mention the gateway again for each follow-up in the thread. Alter adds activity feedback, creates or continues the Buzz thread, and edits its draft reply while the action runs.
4

Try a direct message and a file

Send a direct message or attach a file from an accessible Buzz conversation. Alter keeps direct-message routing private, downloads the attachment for the action, and can upload files produced by tools.

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Send scheduled action output to Buzz

An action can send its automatic opening response to a Buzz stream, forum, or direct conversation.
1

Enable the action for Buzz

Open the action in Action Editor → Gateways and turn on the enabled Buzz gateway.
2

Turn on scheduled gateway delivery

Enable Start scheduled conversations on a gateway, choose the enabled Buzz gateway, then choose a Destination.
3

Save and test the schedule

Save the action and run or wait for its schedule. Alter posts a new top-level Buzz message with any output attachments. Scheduled sends are serialized per destination so overlapping runs do not interleave.
If a saved destination is no longer accessible, load channels again and choose a current destination before the next scheduled run.

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Commands

Buzz accepts the same text workflow as the other chat gateways: When an action asks a question, reply with the numbered choice, a comma-separated set of choices for multi-select, free text for Other, or the submit/cancel instruction shown in the Buzz message.

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Limitations

  • Internal builds only — Buzz gateway is not available in public Alter releases yet.
  • Alter must be running — Like Discord and Telegram gateways, Buzz processing happens locally on your Mac.
  • No Buzz Desktop required — Alter bundles a pinned Buzz CLI and gateway helper; it does not install Buzz Desktop.
  • Mention-only shared channels by default — Every shared-channel message, including thread replies, must mention the gateway identity unless you turn Require a mention in shared channels off.
  • Default action lock — With Limit this Buzz agent to its default action on (default), /new, /actions, and restored chats cannot switch to another action.
  • One response at a time — Alter handles one in-flight response per Buzz conversation, same as other gateways.
  • Text commands only on Buzz — Unlike Discord slash commands or Telegram inline keyboards, Buzz uses text commands and numbered replies for interactive prompts.

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Troubleshooting

Use Settings → Doctor → Gateways for the latest connection and access status.

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Privacy and packaging

  • The private key and optional owner auth tag are stored in the macOS Keychain.
  • Messages, attachments, and action processing use Alter on your Mac. The gateway does not move your private actions into a cloud-hosted Alter service.
  • Alter bundles only the pinned Buzz command-line client and a small signed gateway helper. It does not bundle Buzz Desktop or its interface assets.
  • Incoming relay events are authenticated, signature-checked, and restricted to discovered Buzz memberships before Alter runs an action.